The rules of will

The rules of will:

The most common future forms in English are will, going to, and present continuous. So that’s what we’re going to look at in this course! First of all, let’s look at how to use the future simple, or the future with “will”.

Quick decisions

You can use “will” when you have made a quick, short-term decision to do something in the future.

Imagine you just watched a video or TV show about someone going on holiday to Mexico, and you felt inspired. In that case, you might say something like:

“That looks amazing! Maybe I’ll go to Mexico next summer.”

In this case you use the future simple, because you have just decided to take the action (or the decision isn’t 100% confirmed yet).

Another example:

“It’s cold in here, I’ll open the window.”

Apart from plans, other uses of “will” include:

Promises:

We usually use the future when we make a promise. Look at these examples. 

“My report will be finished by this time next week.”

“I will come to the next meeting on time.”

Requests:

“Will you come to the training session on Friday?”

“Will you tell her I said hi?”

Talking about habits (that are predictable):

“He’ll give up on his New Year’s resolutions after a week.”

“Read her a story, she’ll go to sleep straight away.”

Or even threats (this form often uses the first conditional, which we will talk more about later!)

“If you don’t leave now, I will call security.”